Wednesday, December 28, 2011

Ujima (Collective Work and Responsibility): To build and maintain our community together and make our brothers' and sisters' problems our problems, and to solve them together.

In Day 1 and 2, Ms V mentioned the need for the diverse people of Ward 7 to work together. Well now we have the Day 3 principle of collective work and responsibility. In order to work together successfully a few things need to happen:

There is no "I" in TEAM -My basketball coach drilled that into our heads at every practice, game, bus ride, locker room chat, and team dinner. Well that and "Together Everyone Achieves More". We all need to put our egos aside no matter how bruised or inflated they may be. As long as everyone has a personal agenda, we are doomed to not get anything done.

Clear and collective long-term vision - This isn't an in the weeds set of goals. We need to develop a bird's eye view vision of what we want our communities to be like in 20-30 years. The reason we need to look that far is the decisions we squabble over today will impact future generations. By taking a long-term view, it becomes less of an emotional debate.

Open communication - We currently use the listservs, but we also need to go old school to make sure we are reaching wider audiences. For example, the East of the River Magazine is a great opportunity to write articles to share information with our neighbors and discuss issues facing our community.

Utilize everyone's talents - Everyone has different talents, interests, and abilities. Everyone has a role to play.

Show appreciation - Nothing is sweeter to anyone's ears than the sound of "Thank you".

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Reoccurring Events

Hillcrest Community Civic Association - Every First Saturday. 10:00 AM - noon. Hillcrest Recreation Center, 32nd and Denver St SE. (Usually the Councilmembers who live in Ward 7 drop by at the end for a Council roundtable)

PSA 606 Meeting - Every third Wednesday. 6:00-7:00 PM. East Washington Heights Baptist Church on the corner of Branch and Alabama Ave SE.